The Not Date
by mcplestreet
Summary: After getting a letter from Lily explaining a fight she had with her sister James can't quite believe what she was asking him to do. But coming over and pretending to be her boyfriend just to prove a point to Petunia sounded like the stubborn girl he knew. FakeDating! James/Lily


**Ultimate Writer Challenge** by **CrimsonWonder**

Write 3 fics about your OTP

Enjoy yet another James and Lily fic

* * *

 _Potter,_

 _This may sound strange but I need your help with something._

 _My sister has recently got engaged and its caused her to get pretty big-headed. We got in a fight last night and I may have said, without thinking, that I have a boyfriend in the heat of the moment (she was telling me that the only reason I was so angry with her was because I was jealous so you really can't blame me). She said that she didn't believe me so I said I wont invite him over from dinner this weekend._

 _I've come to the conclusion that out of all the boys I know you would annoy Petunia the most. So I'm asking you to please just do me this one favor. I need to you come to my house this weekend and pretend to be my boyfriend, just for a few hours. I know it's last minute, and that this sounds mental, but I really need your help. If you can't com please send me a letter back pretending to be my boyfriend so I can show it to her._

 _Please please please help me out Potter._

 _Evans_

James Potter starred at the letter in his hand, written in flawless cursive, with an open mouth. Were the words he read not once but three times some kind of cruel joke? Would this be the sort of thing Evans found funny? Since it was in writing he couldn't read her tone of voice. James didn't think she would pull that kind of prank, but she could sometimes be unpredictable.

He thought about how stubborn she was. About how lying about something as simple as dating someone just to prove a point didn't seem out of character for her. And if she was trying to prove a point to Petunia he knew she would do everything in her power. Maybe she wasn't trying to play a joke on him. Once he was confident her request wasn't some sort of prank she grabbed a pen and paper and wrote back his reply saying yes so quickly his hand cramped up.

 _Evans_

 _(though I suppose if we're supposed to be dating I should probably call you Lily)_

 _It kind of sounds like you're playing some sort of trick on me, but I would be happy to come and annoy your sister. Send me your address and specific instructions on how to be the most annoying to her but at the same time the most charming to your parents. Do they know we're not actually dating?_

 _I would have thought that the person that would annoy your sister most would have been Sirius, but I'm flattered that you think I'm more irritating than him._

 _James_

xXx

James rang the doorbell of the Evans family home, his nerves feeling like a hurricane of butterflies. He was going to be inside Lily's _house_. He was going to meet her _parents_. Though he'd given up on pursuing her he still had strong feelings for her. Whether she knew about them or not he wasn't sure. But they were just as strong as they had been the year before. It was so clear to him that they were meant to be together, why was she so blind to the fact?

 _Snap out of it_ , he scolded himself, _you and Lily are just friends. You're going to pretend to be something more, but it's only one night_.

He heard movement inside the house and seconds later the front door opened. Lily Evans, with both her parents and her sister peering over her shoulder a few meters behind her, greeted him with a bright smile. She had her red hair in a braid that made her look even more beautiful than usual. James looked behind her, guessing that the woman only a few years older than he was would be Petunia. How could someone so… un-Lily like be her sister? She was tall and thin, with a long face. But she didn't share Lily's beauty.

"You look nice." Lily said, bringing his attention back to her. "And your hair is almost neat." She reached up to mess up his locks, which he had spent an hour trying to control.

He grabbed her hand to stop her before she got high enough to mess up his hair. "I _can_ clean up nice, you know. I've just never had an occasion special enough."

Lily smiled even wider and pulled him into her house. It was full of muggle decorations, and was much more dull than his own house. But it was hers. This was the place where she grew up, where she called home for the first 10 years of her life. He never thought he'd get the chance to see someplace so special to her. And he never thought he'd get to meet the people who had raised his favorite person in the world. It was all too much for him to comprehend, so he instead focused on the fact that Lily had linked their arms and didn't show nay intention of letting go.

"Mum, dad, Petunia, this is James."

He shook hands with her parents and only smiled at her sister when she eyed him up and down. From the looks of it she wasn't satisfied with her initial impression of him, and her nose crinkled up just to confirm. Her parents on the other hand seemed delighted with him. They asked him lots of questions, mostly about his at home life as a wizard compared to their own. The more questions he asked the more nervous he got. What if he said something wrong within the first five minutes of meeting them? That had the potential to ruin the whole night. Lily must have sensed his nerves and squeezed his arm lightly.

"I still can't figure out why Lily wouldn't have told us about someone as wonderful as you." Her mother asked, giving Lily a pointed look. The two looked so strikingly alike that James was sure he was looking at exactly how Lily would look in 20 years.

Lily rolled her eyes, "Because I knew you would interrogate me, just like you're interrogating him now."

"Sorry dear." Her mother said, putting her hand on his shoulder, "Why don't we all sit down? Can I get you something to drink?"

James stayed close to Lily, afraid that if she strayed too far from him his anxiety would get the better of him.

xXx

James and Lily got their first moment alone nearly two hours later while they cleaned up what was left of their freshly eaten dinner. Lily dried and put away the plates that he washed while her parents chatted about them in the other room. After a few glasses of wine they seemed to have lost the ability to keep their voices down, and he could hear nearly every word they were saying. Thankfully they had nothing but kind words for him. When they first started the dishes Petunia stood in the doorway, examining them as if she could figure out the truth just by watching them. But after a few minutes she finally left and went upstairs, leaving the two alone.

"Thank you for doing this." Lily said once Petunia's bedroom door shut down the hall. "I'm not sure how I'm going to tell my parents we're not actually together. They'll be heartbroken."

James shrugged, handing her a freshly washed plate. "So don't tell them. Wait a few months and then just say we broke up."

She shook her head, the strands of hair not confined to a braid falling in her face. "No, I can't. They'll be so disappointed if I tell them I broke up with you, and I don't want to soil their image of you by saying you broke up with me."

"You'll think of something." He told her.

A few moments of silence fell over them. James couldn't believe how last June she had hated his guts. She'd only warmed up to him in September when he started the school year off by promising her that he wasn't going to ask her out on dates any longer. After that the two got along better than he ever imagined. If he wasn't soon keen on having her in his life by whatever means he would still be trying to persuade her into a date. But settling for friendship, however much he wanted more, was good enough.

"You're a really good guy, James." She said, taking the plate from his hands. "Any girl would be lucky to bring you home to her parents."

"I guess."

He could tell by the way she looked at him that he'd said the wrong thing. James had managed to go the whole night without receiving that look but he knew it was only a matter of time. But how could 'I guess' be the thing that ruined his streak?

"What, no 'yeah I know, I'm amazing' or any other classic James Potter big-headedness?" He could tell from the small smile she wore that she was partially kidding, but there was a real curiosity under her jokes.

James shrugged, starting to wash the utensils. "Maybe I'm not a big headed as you think."

He felt her hand on his arm, but he kept his eyes on the soapy forks in front of him. "James, I was kidding."

"I know."

He heard her let out a long sigh. She reached out and shut off the water, robbing him of a distraction. "What's wrong? And don't say nothing, I know there's something."

James put the forks down on the bottom of the sink and wiped his hands off on a towel before finally looking at her. "It's stupid." He warned her. She raised an eyebrow at him and gestured for him to go on. "It's just… it kind of sucks that I spent a year and a half trying to get you to go on a date with me, and now we're finally on one but it's not even real."

"James-"

Before she could say any more he turned the water back on and continued washing off the utensils, "Like I said, it's stupid."

They were both silent again, neither one sure what to say. It wasn't until James started on the spoons that Lily spoke up again. "I have to tell you something."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Oh? What's that?"

"The reason…" she sighed again, leaning on the counter next to him. "It's not that I don't like you I'm just scared."

"Scared of what?"

"Of this!" She said, waving her arms in the air. "Of fancy dinner when you meet my parents and they drink too much wine and say 'when you guys get your own place you can get have this china set'."

"Hey, that was really sweet of your dad." James said in her fathers defense. Though he couldn't help at how flustered she was getting. Her face was turning red and she was talking faster and faster by the second. "So if this is what you're scared of why did you invite me."

"Because it's not real." She said, "But… maybe a small part of my wants it to be."

James hesitated. Just like all the other times she started rambling she wasn't making any sense. "So you want this, but you're scared of it, but you did it anyway? But it doesn't matter because it's not real? That doesn't make any sense Lily."

"I know"

She took a break from her rambling to put the spoons away, then leaned against the counter with her arms crossed against her chest. He could see the gears in her head working as she bit down on her bottom lip. It was moments like this that James wished he could just read her mind so that she didn't have to struggle to find the right words. When she first started allowing him to get to know her he learned that she sometimes struggled to articulate what was on her mind.

"I like you." She said finally, "But I like the way we are now. I like being friends and I like the occasional tease-flirting. And I'm scarred of things getting more serious because the more serious a relationship gets the more you can get hurt."

"Do you think I would hurt you?"

Lily shook her head. "No, not on purpose." She said. It was now her turn to avoid eye contact. "But every relationship either ends in marriage of a break up. And right now I don't want either."

James wasn't quite sure, but he had a feeling that the impossible was happening. Could _Lily Evans_ really be telling him that she had feelings for him? It seemed too good to be true. He had no clue how long she could have been hiding these feelings from him, but it was possible that she had them back in the days when he asked her out at least once a week. If he had known he would have never stopped. Then again, maybe that was the point.

"So what do you want." He asked her, leaning on the counter next to them. There were only a few inches separating them and he found himself needing to hold back from getting closer to her. She was clearly uncomfortable with the conversation as it was, he didn't want to push her.

"I just…" she said, her voice soft. In the other room her parents laughed drunkenly at a show they were watching on the television. "I want you to be patient with me."

"I can do that."

A small smile spread on her face, and an even bigger one appeared on his own. It all seemed too good to be true. He was tempted to pinch himself. But he knew that he wasn't dreaming; his dreams never made any sense at all.

Lily reached over and took his hand, keeping her eyes fixed on the wall in front of them. He watched as her little smile grew and her cheeks began to turn pink. Lily Evans blushing and trying not to smile was perhaps his favorite Lily Evans. Butterflies started fluttering in his stomach again, and started flying even faster when she rested her head on his shoulder. James would have been happy spending the rest of his life standing in her kitchen with her head on his shoulder. But he was glad he wasn't since they had many more memories to make together.


End file.
